Pumpkin the Adorable Bandit Dog

Pumpkin, Oreo and Toffee are three unlikely friends, with an incredible bond.

By Penny Eims

Pumpkin may very well be the cutest “bandit” dog that you have ever seen. Okay, perhaps not a dog of the canine sort, but shh, don’t tell her. In 2014, when Pumpkin was just a month old, she fell from a tree during a Bahamian windstorm - the fall resulted in a broken leg and ultimately, the loss of her family. The woman who discovered the injured baby waited and watched for the mother raccoon to return, but it soon became apparent that the injured young cub had been abandoned.

Baby Pumpkin’s fall happened in the back- yard of Laura Young’s parents’ home-today, Laura is Pumpkin’s adoptive mom...well, one of three “moms.” Young’s two rescued dogs, Oreo and Toffee, are Pumpkin’s best friends, siblings and self-appointed, stand-in moms as well. Ac- cording to Young, the trio formed an almost immediate bond. In Young’s book, Pumpkin: The Raccoon Who Thought She Was a Dog, she comments on the unlikely friendship, “It was a surprise to all of us to see these three misfits form such a beautiful connection.”

Pumpkin adores her canine family-in fact, she follows them everywhere, and judging by her actions, Pumpkin is quite certain that she too is a dog. In Young’s book, she describes Pumpkin’s sweet morning greeting to her best friends, “She walks up to them and grabs their noses and licks them or gives them a gentle nibble. She does this when they come back from walks, and if she is up in the cupboard space, she always pops open a door just to see if it is really them.”

Join the pack of loyal dog owners who take Fido with them wherever they travel! Our community is a growing network of those that follow our motto of Leave No Dog Behind® and believe Fido is part of the family.

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